Dubbed Project CAVForth, Scotland’s autonomous buses will carry around 10,000 passengers each week.
1. Forth Road Bridge
Five self-driving buses will be carrying passengers, as of May 15, across the iconic Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh, in a route covering around 22 km. The service will operate a frequent timetable with the capacity for around 10,000 journeys per week and, despite being an autonomous vehicle, it will have two members of staff on board — one safety driver in the driver’s seat to monitor the technology, and a ‘captain’ in the saloon to take tickets and help passengers who may have questions.
“This is an exciting milestone for this innovative and ambitious project, and I very much look forward to seeing Project CAVForth take to the roads next month,” said Scotland’s Minister for Transport, Kevin Stewart.
Our trunk road network can provide a wide range of environments as a diverse testing ground, and the ground-breaking and globally significant Project CAVForth will really help Scotland establish its credentials on the world stage.
Kevin Stewart, Scotland’s Minister for Transport
2. Electric mass mobility
The milestone in reaching electric mass mobility follows the successful completion of an extensive testing program and registration of the bus service by Stagecoach, the UK’s largest bus and coach operator. The complex project — based on a combination of sensors, cameras, GPS, and other technologies to detect obstacles, pedestrians, and other vehicles on the road — has several partners and it was partly funded by the UK Government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.
We are excited to introduce the UK’s first autonomous bus fleet in East Scotland which is also home to our headquarters and where it all began over 40 years ago.
Carla Stockton-Jones, UK Managing Director
Stagecoach is also introducing 122 new fully electric buses in key transport networks across the UK in the next 12 months. The operator has recently introduced its first fully electric bus cities in Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness and Dunfermline in Scotland, and in 2020 made one of the biggest single investments in electric vehicles in Europe with its double-decker fleet in Manchester.
